A clean start is something Eric Musselman craves just as much as the man who replaced him as Arkansas basketball coach.
Since being hired at USC, Musselman and his family have embraced everything about the private university and Los Angeles community. In the tightly-knit of college basketball, however, there is no such thing as a full reset.
His five years in Arkansas still resonate plenty on his life and his future. Some of that, of course, Musselman welcomes. Not just because of the deep NCAA Tournament runs, sold-out arenas, multiple NBA picks and all the other stuff that ultimately will define his legacy as a Razorback, but also because the Musselmans value the friends they made while living in Fayetteville.
Indeed, over the course of summer, they have hosted some of those very Arkansans in their new home in Manhattan Beach. “If you could see the number of Arkansas people who have traveled here and stayed in our house or stayed at the Shade Hotel up the road, it’s every freaking day,” he told Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman.
Musselman added they sometimes request to book to the campus bookstore, which sells USC basketball gear. “They’re buying stuff. A lot of our friends living in Arkansas are now Trojan fans too,” he said.
JJ Andrews Sought by Hogs and Trojans
A couple years from now, there’s one Arkansan more than any other he most wants to see wear USC basketball gear. That would be JJ Andrews, the national top 20 junior guard out of Little Rock and the son of Shawn Andrews, the former Razorback offensive lineman and first-round NFL draft pick.
Andrews showed out this summer for the 16-U Bradley Beal Elite squad, playing especially well in the Nike Peach Jam. That earned him a scholarship offer from John Calipari, the new Arkansas basketball coach, as well as a re-offer from Musselman to USC.
The legacy aspect obviously plays in Arkansas favor, but Musselman “has the benefit of getting in on Andrews’ recruitment very early in the process,” our own Andrew Hutchinson wrote.
“He first offered him as the Razorbacks’ head coach last May, at the end of his freshman year. Calipari, on the other hand, never offered him at Kentucky – but that’s par for the course with him, as he doesn’t typically offer players that early.”
It would be no surprise if Musselman one day returns to Arkansas in the future in part to see Andrews. He’d likely enjoy catching up with coaches and friends as well. Musselman has said he loved his time in Arkansas and that it’s a great basketball job.
While things didn’t end in Fayetteville like he would have wanted, the frustration of the 2023-24 season and all the weird, weird drama that went along with it should fade in time. You can expect that his wife and daughter, who made so many friends in Arkansas, would also be keen to go back to the state and re-connect.
Not so much with his sons, it appears.
Both sons served on Musselman’s staff in 2024-24, the older Michael as an assistant making $150,000 a year and the younger Matthew as a graduate assistant. Matthew had spent the previous year in San Diego, where he graduated college, so this was the only season at Arkansas in which Eric Musselman got both sons by his side.
Unfortunately, it was also by far his worst season as a Razorback.
Arkansas Basketball Frustrations
While folks wouldn’t want to detail it publicly, all the losing and issues that led to it had to have worn away at their psyches. No doubt, stretches of the last few months in Fayetteville were very frustrating. While the female Musselmans might have been able to more easily focus on off-the-court activities and friendships, that would have not been the case for the males who live, eat and sleep practically every aspect of the game and business around it.
Musselman said the prospect of leaving Arkansas was toughest on his teenage daughter, Mariah, because she had grown up so much in Arkansas. It was easier for Danyelle because she had worked for the NFL Network in LA and already had friends there.
The easiest sell was with his sons.
“Any time a coach makes a decision, your family’s got to be a huge, huge part of it,” he told Goodman. “But quite frankly, with my two sons, it was easy in that the minute the job came open, they started packing and I hadn’t even interviewed. So for my two sons, that was super easy.”
In a June interview with the Dunk City Podcast, Michael Musselman admitted as much: “The conversation went pretty much like ‘Uh, when are we moving?’” He then explained a big part of that was the allure of USC basketball, in “terms of brand academics, alumni base, alumni support, which is extremely important in today’s new era of basketball,” as well as the program’s overall history.
That “alumni support” comment is something, of course, that every major college basketball program would tout. However, it’s notable here because it’s possible that Eric Musselman didn’t receive as much NIL funds to get the exact players he wanted going into 2023-24. Ron Holland, a 6’8″ wing who was picked at No. 5 in the 2024 NBA Draft, immediately comes to mind.
Coming out of the 2022-23 season, though, Holland was a 5-star high school recruit who would have fit perfectly on a 2023-24 Hogs roster that would end up sorely lacking the rangy, defensive versatility and all-around scoring punch he brought. For a while it seemed like Holland was bound for Fayetteville, but instead he ended up choosing the G-League and what is presumed to have been a higher payday.
A source said that Musselman wasn’t able to summon the NIL funds to get Holland’s signature, a failure that apparently soured his final months in Arkansas. Then, a few days ago, CBS’ Matt Norlander mentioned some of his sources have said that Arkansas basketball’s NIL budget was around $1 million last year – a far cry from the purported $8 million+ war chest now at its bidding.
Musselman More Like the “Portal Baron” These Days?
It’s easy to say it’s all water under the bridge now, but if the Hogs are truly commanding that much now they will be an even more formidable foe for Musselman when recruiting high schoolers and transfers. Can Musselman stockpile enough talent to take USC to its first Final Four of the modern era? It’s a question that Arkansas basketball fans with passion second only to the fate of their own program, where Calipari is trying to make up for an underwhelming finish at Kentucky.
Beyond the NIL funds, Calipari may have an advantage in Year 1 simply because he knows more of the players after coaching or recruiting them at Kentucky. It also matters he knows most of the SEC competition. Musselman, meanwhile, must learn the Big Then on the fly and is dealing with more brand-new players.
However, it’s hard to consider Eric Musselman college basketball’s “Portal King” any more given how commonplace transfers have become. The fact that his last attempt at roster alchemy mostly failed tarnished his reputation in that regard, too.
As Musselman sees it, however, what he suffered at Arkansas will happen more often to his colleagues not only in basketball but other college sports as well. “You’re going to see teams and programs and coaches that have off years much more so than you saw,” he told Field of 68. “You’re going to see that trend happen with a lot of programs that you wouldn’t expect.”
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What Michael Musselman Does as USC Basketball Assistant
In the past, “I have filled a lot of different positions and gotten my hands in a lot of different things, whether it be social media, operational stuff,” Michael Musselman told The Dunk City podcast. Last season, he was a main driver in Arkansas’ men’s basketball recruiting efforts.
“I feel like I have a pretty well-rounded background and I like the fact that Coach Muss can kind of throw anything at me, whether it be, ‘Hey, I need you to go see this recruit this weekend,’ or ‘Hey, I need you to do this recruiting graphic or edit this video,’ or, you know, ‘Get with our SID on a press release,’ different things like that.”
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Exactly how many heads would explode as a result of Calipari locking horns with Musselman in the 2025 NCAA Tournament?
More on that potential matchup below!
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